Game Informer's June issue WAR article

[Vid]

So I got my June article of Game Informer today and decided to post the article here for the rest to read who are interested. I'll go ahead and say its a short article and doesn't provide anymore information we don't already know.

Originally Posted by Game Informer June Issue 2008, page 70

When Mythic was acquired by Electronic Arts last year, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning was the biggest winner. With the financial stability that comes from being part of the EA empire, Mythic set out to make the fame the best it could be. Ideas previously scrapped as being to time-consuming or expensive were put back on the table, already-finished zones received further tuning and upgrades and designs were iterated and refined until they shone. Though the new fall release date is a far cry from the original ship date, WAR is now an obviously better game than what we had seen previously.

This MMORPG leans heavily toward player-versus-player combat, though a healthy dose of cooperative player-versus-environment content is available as well. The core gameplay will be instantly familiar to anyone who has dabbled in EverQuest-style MMOs in the past, with all of the conventions from auto-attacks to energy bars firmly in place. You’ll quest for experience, level up, and do most everything else you’d expect out of a fantasy MMO. But the brilliance of WAR is in the details.

Aside from the high gains in polish and playability, the best change since the last time we saw WAR is the introduction of a far greater scale of non-instanced realm-versus-realm combat. The previous design had players battling primarily in instanced scenarios that played out much like World of Warcrafts’s Battlegrounds. Though that element is still present, the focus has sifted towards encouraging players to take part in the large public PvP areas that can be found in nearly every zone.

These dedicated battlefields feature objectives that range from lightly guarded control points to massive keeps that require siege weaponry to assault. When your faction owns a point, NPC guards will spawn to help defend it and you’ll be able to resurrect there after your inevitable death. Keeps also operate like this, but they are bigger in every way. Patrols of several guards will wander about the courtyard, the controlling guild can hang its banner from the battlements, and both defenders and attackers can make use of heavy weaponry.

So why fight over these objectives, but for the glory of the battle? Because every one of your successes feeds into a number of advancement systems. First, victories increases the prestige of your associated capital city, opening up new vendors, dungeons, and quests. PvP combat increases your Renown, which earns you titles, achievements, and more. Finally, as with everything else you do, successes feed into your guild’s experience pool – allowing the guild access to banks, banners, battle standards, and the like.

Being the hardcore MMORPG fans that we are, the elegance of Warhammer’s improved design impresses us from top to bottom. WAR is very well positioned to carve itself a place among the top tier of MMORPGs when it launches this fall.

[rpgsrule]

*EDITED for content*

[Dr. Boombeard]

Nice read.

FYI: Everquest was a disappointment imo.

[Soriin]

Cool little article. Of course, it was nothing new, but I like to see the kind of stuff that'll be reaching the people that this is new to. Also gives me "simple" words and phrases to use when I'm talking about the game so I don't go on and on for 3 days straight explaining everything I know.

[AlienOverlord]

Nice, concise summary of all the coolness we're waiting to see in WAR!

Now Mythic just has to pull it off

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Thanks for posting this!

[Gurnisson]

Ey Jimmy! Gimme da paper, da paper!

[Keeng]

Someone care to explain to me why the issues are always one month ahead, so to speak. It's clearly May. I don't get it.

[impulsebooks]

Short, but favourable review. Thanks for posting it.

[BileBoy]

Originally Posted by Keeng

Someone care to explain to me why the issues are always one month ahead, so to speak. It's clearly May. I don't get it.

June is the month it hits magazine stands. One of the perks to being a suscriber is you get it 'before' it hits the stands. It's the same way with most any magazines like Time, Newsweek, etc.


And as for the preview, yeah I thought it was nice to get a review that just stated some facts; didn't hype it up, but didn't tear it down.

[ClownSt0pper]

Almost all magazines are published 13 times a year if I remember correctly. I have no idea why

[ProfessorChaos]

Originally Posted by rpgsrule

*EDITED for content*

There seems to be this mentality that if you play AoC you can't play WAR. Can't people like more than one game?

[Foofmonger]

Originally Posted by ProfessorChaos

There seems to be this mentality that if you play AoC you can't play WAR. Can't people like more than one game?

Thats like asking people to pat their head and rub their belly at the same time.

[ProfessorChaos]

Originally Posted by Foofmonger

Thats like asking people to pat their head and rub their belly at the same time.

Which is easily done. thank you for agreeing.

[Foofmonger]

Originally Posted by ProfessorChaos

Which is easily done. thank you for agreeing.

Not everyone can do it. I can, but I know people who can't.